Origami PDF

DNA origami object origami PDF viral DNA visualized by electron tomography. The map is at the top and atomic model of the DNA colored below.

DNA origami is the nanoscale folding of DNA to create non-arbitrary two- and three-dimensional shapes at the nanoscale. The specificity of the interactions between complementary base pairs make DNA a useful construction material, through design of its base sequences. DNA origami was the cover story of Nature on March 16, 2006. The idea of using DNA as a construction material was first introduced in the early 1980s by Nadrian Seeman. To produce a desired shape, images are drawn with a raster fill of a single long DNA molecule.

This design is then fed into a computer program that calculates the placement of individual staple strands. Bottom-up self-assembly methods are considered promising alternatives that offer cheap, parallel synthesis of nanostructures under relatively mild conditions. Since the creation of this method, software was developed to assist the process using CAD software. This allows researchers to use a computer to determine the way to create the correct staples needed to form a certain shape. One such software called caDNAno is an open source software for creating such structures from DNA. The use of software has not only increased the ease of the process but has also drastically reduced the errors made by manual calculations.

Many potential applications have been suggested in literature, including enzyme immobilization, drug delivery systems, and nanotechnological self-assembly of materials. Though DNA is not the natural choice for building active structures for nanorobotic applications, due to its lack of structural and catalytic versatility, several papers have examined the possibility of molecular walkers on origami and switches for algorithmic computing. Researchers at the Harvard University Wyss Institute reported the self-assembling and self-destructing drug delivery vessels using the DNA origami in the lab tests. The DNA nanorobot they created is an open DNA tube with a hinge on one side which can be clasped shut. Researchers in the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology in Beijing and Arizona State University reported a DNA origami delivery vehicle for Doxorubicin, a well-known anti-cancer drug.

In a study conducted by a group of scientists from iNANO center and CDNA Center at Aarhus university, researchers were able to construct a small multi-switchable 3D DNA Box Origami. Nanorobots made of DNA origami demonstrated computing capacities and completed pre-programmed task inside the living organism was reported by a team of bioengineers at Wyss Institute at Harvard University and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials at Bar-Ilan University. DNA is folded into an octahedron and coated with a single bilayer of phospholipid, mimicking the envelope of a virus particle. The DNA nanoparticles, each at about the size of a virion, are able to remain in circulation for hours after injected into mice. It also elicits much lower immune response than the uncoated particles. The idea of using protein design to accomplish the same goals as DNA origami has surfaced as well. Researchers at the National Institute of Chemistry in Slovenia are working on using rational design of protein folding to create structures much like those seen with DNA origami.